Vehicle seat apparatus

The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-330980 filed on Dec. 21, 2007 including the specification, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to a vehicle seat apparatus, and, more specifically to a vehicle seat apparatus that allows a vehicle seat to swivel with respect to a vehicle floor.

2. Description of the Related Art

Vehicle seat apparatuses of this type are described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-215113 (JP-A-7-215113) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-337619 (JP-A-2002-337619). With an automobile seat apparatus described in JP-A-7-215113, an automobile seat in the second row is allowed to swivel around to face an automobile seat in the third row in a passenger compartment.

European Patent Application Publication No. 1693245 describes a seat apparatus with which seats in the second row are allowed to swivel inward in a passenger compartment to face each other. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-40148 (JP-A-2000-40148) describes a technology for determining the arousal level of a driver based on an image of the driver.

However, in an example described in JP-A-7-215113, in order to swivel the automobile seat in the second row around to face the automobile seat in the third row, a cumbersome operation, for example, manually swiveling the automobile seat in the second row, is required. Therefore, there is still room for improvement in enhancing the usability of an automobile seat to further increase the comfort of a passenger compartment.

The invention is made in light of the above-described circumstances. The invention provides a vehicle seat apparatus with which the comfort of a passenger compartment is further increased.

A first aspect of the invention relates to a vehicle seat apparatus that includes: a vehicle seat; a swiveling drive unit that swivels the vehicle seat between a frontward-oriented position in which the vehicle seat faces the front of a vehicle and at least one of an outward-oriented position in which the vehicle seat is oriented in the outward direction of the vehicle and an inward-oriented position in which the vehicle seat is oriented in the inward direction of the vehicle; an occupant condition detection unit that detects the condition of an occupant in the vehicle; and a control unit that controls the swiveling drive unit based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit.

With the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the occupant condition detection unit detects the condition of the occupant in the vehicle. Then, the control unit controls the swiveling drive unit based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit so that the vehicle seat is automatically swiveled to the outward-oriented position or the inward-oriented position. Thus, the usability of the vehicle seat is enhanced. As a result, it is possible to further increase the comfort of a passenger compartment.

In the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the swiveling drive unit may be able to swivel the vehicle seat toward the outward-oriented position, the occupant condition detection unit may detect the condition of communication between an occupant seated in the vehicle seat and a person outside the vehicle, and the control unit may control the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is swiveled toward the outward-oriented position when the control unit determines that the occupant seated in the vehicle seat is communicating with a person outside the vehicle based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit.

With the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the occupant condition detection unit detects the condition of communication between the occupant seated in the vehicle seat and a person outside the vehicle. When the control unit determines that the occupant seated in the vehicle seat is communicating with a person outside the vehicle based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit, the control unit controls the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is automatically swiveled toward the outward-oriented position. Thus, the occupant seated in the vehicle seat and the person outside the vehicle can communicate with each other more easily.

In the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the swiveling drive unit may be able to swivel the vehicle seat toward the inward-oriented position, the occupant condition detection unit may detect the condition of communication between the occupant seated in the vehicle seat and another occupant in the vehicle, and the control unit may control the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is swiveled toward the inward-oriented position when the control unit determines that the occupant seated in the vehicle seat is communicating with the other occupant in the vehicle based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit.

With the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the occupant condition detection unit detects the condition of communication between the occupant seated in the vehicle seat and another occupant in the vehicle. Then, when the control unit determines that the occupant seated in the vehicle seat communicates with the other occupant based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit, the control unit controls the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is automatically swiveled toward the inward-oriented position. Thus, the occupants can communicate with each other more easily.

In the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the swiveling drive unit may be able to swivel the vehicle seat toward the outward-oriented position, and the control unit may control the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is swiveled toward the outward-oriented position when the control unit determines that the occupant seated in the vehicle seat is not communicating with the other occupant in the vehicle based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit.

With the vehicle seat apparatus described above, even when the control unit once determines that the occupant seated in the vehicle seat is communicating with another occupant and therefore the vehicle seat is swiveled toward the inward-oriented position, if the control unit determines later that these occupants are not communicating with each other, the control unit controls the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is automatically swiveled toward the outward-oriented position. Thus, a personal space (for example, a space useful for the occupant to relax or to enjoy scenery seen from a window) is created for the occupants seated in the vehicle seat.

In the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the swiveling drive unit may be able to swivel the vehicle seat toward the outward-oriented position, the occupant condition detection unit may detect whether a personal space needs to be provided to the occupant seated in the vehicle seat, and the control unit may control the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is swiveled toward the outward-oriented position when the control unit determines that a personal space needs to be provided to the occupant seated in the vehicle seat based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit.

With the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the occupant condition detection unit detects whether a personal space needs to be provided to the occupant seated in the vehicle seat. When the control unit determines that a personal space needs to be provided to the occupant seated in the vehicle seat based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit, the control unit controls the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is automatically swiveled toward the outward-oriented position. Thus, the occupant seated in the vehicle seat is provided with a personal space.

In the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the occupant condition detection unit may detect the arousal level of the occupant seated in the vehicle seat, and the control unit may control the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is swiveled toward the outward-oriented position when the control unit determines that the arousal level of the occupant seated in the vehicle seat has been decreased based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit.

With the vehicle seat apparatus described above, the occupant condition detection unit detects the arousal level of the occupant seated in the vehicle seat. Then, the control unit controls the swiveling drive unit so that the vehicle seat is automatically swiveled toward the outward-oriented position when the control unit determines that the arousal level of the occupant seated in the vehicle seat has been decreased based on the detection result obtained by the occupant condition detection unit. Thus, it is possible to provide the occupant seated in the vehicle seat with a personal space, that is, an environment in which the occupant can take a nice sleep.